HiRez Poll Merchant, Natalie - TIGERLILY [DVD-A]

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Rate the DVD-A of Natalie Merchant - TIGERLILY


  • Total voters
    38

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this title! (y) :phones (n)

Merchant Tiger Front.jpgMerchant Tiger Back.jpg
 
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Great music, excellent sonics, horrible surround mix. I haven't listened to it in a while, but my impression was that it is fake surround. Also, the "stereo" track is just a mix-down from surround.

Three points.
 
Almost complete accordance with Cai - except I don't think it is fake surround, just very very conservative.
The rears seem to be predominantly there for Ambience, generally holding reverb but occasionally throwing up a surprise or two.

The sound quality overall is superb, and the disc is very well presented.
I've not actually listened to the stereo version at all.
Voted a 7 for the overall production, but it's not fake.
I think we have been spoiled by superb mixers like Elliot Scheiner, who in general makes everyone else look out of their depth.
 
Can't agree with you Cai

Yes it has vocals in all 5 channels but I don't believe that it's a "fake mix". Sonically it's very warm and open to my ears , with instrumentation and vocals remaining anchored across the 3 front channels, despite the 5 channel spread. Musically it's first class, I've loved the CD for ages:banana:

Another perspective here www.highfidelityreview.com/reviews/review.asp?reviewnumber=19230301

An 8 for me


Cheers


Martin
 
9 from me . I think her voice is the most powerful musical tool present and worthy of enveloping you from each speaker.

~M~
 
Not being much of a Natalie Merchant fan, I had low expectations. Listening to the DVD-A, I was hearing this album for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised. The biggest surprise was the great guitar work by Jennifer Turner.

This is not a fake surround mix, though some elements--most noticeably the guitar and drums---are very often present in most of the channels.

To my surprise, I will listen to this one more than once.
 
I just dug this one out of the collection and gave it a listen. This was my first album by her, and i ilked it quite a lot. I thought the music was a 9, and the surround mix was a 8.1/2. I liked the surround mix, i heard a lot of distinct instruments comming from the rears. Sounded good to me. Over all i gave it a 9.:banana:
 
I had to go back and listen to this after all the positive comments. The surround mix is not bad as I remember it. In fact, the only reason I have any negative feelings for it is because of the surround-to-stereo mixdown instead a of a true stereo mix (probably doesn't matter much to folks here but I feel that a proper DVD-A should offer true surround and stereo mixes).

I've changed my vote from a 3 to a 7.
 
I agree with you Cai - which is exactly why II marked down the 2 Bowie titles.
Both the stereo versions are downmixes.
 
I got this disc on Friday from CDUniverse.com and I must say, the mix is unique. I don't think I've heard another DVD-A mix with vocals in all five channels. I really like the mix overall though. It's definitely not fake surround, I just think it's unusual.

Sonically this disc can't be beat. One thing I love about DVD-Audio is how it works so well with acoustic music to really bring out the fidelity and warmth of the sound like a CD just can't.

I would give the disc a 10, but the surround mix, while I do like it, isn't as top-notch as I'd like, so I'll knock a point off and give it a 9.
 
I don't think there is a stereo mix at all on my DVD-A of "Tigerlily". I tried it on my Pioneer 578 player and on my PC using either WinDVD 7 or Creative's DVD-A player and saw no option to play a stereo mix. It's only 24/96 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1

Kev
 
I don't think there is a stereo mix at all on my DVD-A of "Tigerlily". I tried it on my Pioneer 578 player and on my PC using either WinDVD 7 or Creative's DVD-A player and saw no option to play a stereo mix. It's only 24/96 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1

Kev

There isn't one, that's why!
As Cai rightly pointed out earlier the stereo is a downmix.
All that is in the Audio_TS is a single group, containing the 5.1 stream with a downmix set at the MLP encoder.
 
There isn't one, that's why!
As Cai rightly pointed out earlier the stereo is a downmix.
All that is in the Audio_TS is a single group, containing the 5.1 stream with a downmix set at the MLP encoder.

"the 5.1 stream with a downmix set at the MLP decoder".

Hopefully this isn't a dumb question (but probably is based on earlier comments in this thread;)) is there any way to output this disc in stereo (PPCM, LPCM, whatever?
I see the word downmix and it makes me wonder maybe....
 
Picked this up very reasonably not long ago. Nicely recorded but a very conservative surround mix.

Lack of a dedicated stereo mix is not much of an issue for me.
 
I bought a lot of my surround discs before I put together matching speakers front and back, and not having a better system to test 'em out on, decided to reserve judgement on discs that didn't initially impress on the system I had. Now that the setup's a little better, I've been revisiting some of these discs to see if I missed something the first time around.

Tigerlily is one of these. It's one of the first DVD-As I bought, as the album has long been a favorite in this household, but the DVD-A hasn't gotten a lot of play in the surround setup. I revisited it again tonight -- it's still a great album, and the recording sounds fabulous, but in terms of surroundiness it seems like a lost opportunity more than anything else. Whiz-bang effects would be out of place, but it sure would be nice to hear the instruments spread out a bit. Altogether I can't give it more than a 7, and I really do love the music.

Mark Z
 
Natalie's voice is somewhat vanilla and can become a little tiresome after an entire album, but personally I find the surround mix to be very engaging and appropriate for the music. The "missing" stereo mix and not much for extras brings this to a 7 for me. Very hard to find these days, especially at an affordable price. Thanks to filper for helping me add this to my collection without breaking the bank :)
 
Does anyone else hear a little sibilance in the vocals from time to time throughout this disc? I'm pretty sure I detect the same thing on my redbook version.
 
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